Shane Black: Arnold Schwarzenegger was Supposed to Appear in The Predator but Declined

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One of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s more iconic roles was that of Dutch Schaefer in Predator. After a slew of movies in the franchise though, he’s never returned at least once to reprise his role. Apparently, Schwarzenegger was offered a role in the upcoming The Predator, but declined because it wasn’t too big of a role for him.

“The studio wanted a fresher movie that featured an evolving cast… They didn’t want to hinge the movie on the re-emergence of Schwarzenegger. It would probably be more of a matter of his showing up briefly and just participating at the very end, at the climax of the movie.”

… Understandably – and believe me, I completely get it – [Schwarzenegger] said, ‘Look, that’s kind of a small part, and I don’t really think I want to do that. I’m off to do Terminator with Jim Cameron, basically.”

This isn’t the first time Schwarzenegger was asked to come back to the franchise as well. Back in 2010, there was an interesting scene in Predators that would have revealed Dutch to have become the leader of a Predator clan. There’s even a digital mock-up of what it could have looked like.

If anything, it looks like they’re trying to refresh the franchise with this new Predator movie, and there’s a lot of room for Dutch to come back in one way or another.

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Bayani Miguel Acebedo is a pop-culture dork. When he's not scouring the internet for news on the latest movies and games, he's building Star Wars model kits and playing Overwatch. He's a huge Star Wars geek, and his favorite X-Wing pilot is Jek Porkins. He likes Kevin Smith and Jared Hess movies, and he also does cosplay. What a nerd.